


Eve and Ava Save the Time Bureau

by Drogna



Series: Five Long Years [3]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/F, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Rare Pair, Shaxter, This ship is a canoe, Time Bureau
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 04:04:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12950910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drogna/pseuds/Drogna
Summary: Rip leaves Eve Baxter and Ava Sharpe in charge of the Time Bureau while he deals with some time pirates, but Eve and Ava are having relationship issues. Former Time Masters aren't supposed to have feelings, and they're definitely not supposed to fall in love with their fellow agents. However, Eve has to put everything on hold when the Time Bureau is endangered by Rip's mission going wrong.





	Eve and Ava Save the Time Bureau

**Author's Note:**

  * For [daggerons](https://archiveofourown.org/users/daggerons/gifts).



> This fic was written as payment for a bet for thorinsbigdicko (hope you like it!). I love Eve and Ava though, so it wasn't a hardship to write. Also it gave me an excuse for Rip to talk about relationships, which is always interesting, sometimes amusing and occasionally heartbreaking.
> 
> Rip is in deep denial about any feelings that he might have for a certain AI through out the entirety of this fic. He might work it out one day.

 

“Hon, where’s my uniform jacket?” asked Ava.

“Why would I know?” replied Eve. “Did you feed Cat?”

“Hell, no. That’s your responsibility, babe,” said Ava, with the beginnings of a teasing smile on her lips.

Eve cast her partner an annoyed look and rolled her eyes. She hated pet names, and Ava knew it. She was doing it to wind her up. She wondered when her life had become so domestic, that this light joking was something she found amusing, adorable even. She’d never have considered it possible in previous times. Yet here were two of the Time Bureau’s top operatives sat finishing breakfast between finding keys, and jackets, and exchanging jibes. This was who she was now, someone who had a girlfriend, and a life, and apparently, a cat.

She went to the container with the cat kibble in it, muttering about equal division of labour, and poured some of the dry food into the bowl for her ungrateful feline. She absently tickled the tabby behind the ears as it approached the bowl and started crunching. Perhaps Gilbert hadn’t been totally wrong when he’d got her the cat, she was sort of warming to the thing. Although she was fairly sure it hated her.

Ava was still searching for her jacket, and Eve decided to take pity, because they were going to be late for work otherwise. She looked over at the screen where Gilbert’s blue avatar could be seen.

“Gilbert, where’s Ava’s jacket?”

“I believe you’ll find it on the floor on the right side of the bedroom where you flung it last night, Director Baxter,” said Gilbert, clearly predicting the reaction this would bring and enjoying it.

Eve was amused to see Ava’s cheeks had a slight blush to them at the AI’s words.

“I will never get used to your AI knowing these things…” murmured Ava.

“I engaged his privacy settings,” said Eve, with a dangerous smile, “somewhere between the first kiss and us falling onto the bed.”

Ava was giving her a long-suffering look. “It’s still weird.”

“Love me, love my AI,” said Eve. “Come on, we’re going to be late and Hunter wants to do that handover meeting.”

Ava sighed but nodded.

These nights together were becoming more frequent, and Eve had decided that she actually quite liked it. Who knew that falling in love could be so much fun? She was gaining a new insight into why Hunter had declared it to be so important now. It had taken her a while, but she was getting there, learning how to let Ava into her life. The Time Masters hadn’t exactly given lessons on emotional development, more the opposite really. She was still amazed that Hunter had managed to fall in love at all under such an oppressive prohibition of any kind of emotion, but perhaps if she’d met someone like Ava she’d have betrayed her vow to the Time Masters too.

Her thought processes suddenly came to a crashing halt.

It took her a moment to process what she’d just been thinking, and then she realised that she was in trouble, because she might be properly in love with Ava Sharpe. It wasn’t just that she enjoyed her company or their love making, it was becoming more than that. Eve Baxter might be considering actually being in love with someone, and she wasn’t sure she wanted that.

She pushed the thought to the back of her mind, finished her coffee. She had a mission. She protected the timeline. Emotions were not a part of that. Love was not a part of that.

But, so far, being with Ava hadn’t hindered her in her work, a small voice reminded her. It had been the opposite. Being with Ava had made her better, smarter, harder working… That wasn’t what she’d been taught about relationships at all. The confusion was eating at her now.

“You look worried,” said Ava, and leaned in and kissed Eve on the lips, gently.

“It’s nothing. Let’s go,” she said, pulling back and missing the frown on Ava’s face, as she failed to properly return the kiss.

“Okay,” Ava replied, now looking a little puzzled, and the two of them left the apartment, heading out for the short commute to the Time Bureau.

-

Rip and Eve didn’t have a big moment when he came to her to recruit her for the Time Bureau. It wasn’t the crisis of revelation that “The Train Incident” was for Ava. It was more that Rip stood there on the bridge of the Acheron, outlining his plan, explaining everything that the Time Masters had done to him and the timeline, and Eve realised that she didn’t want to be part of that organisation anymore. She fully acknowledged that Rip was right, the Time Masters were corrupt, and the Time Bureau was needed, but that wasn’t why she ended up joining Rip on his anachronism repairing crusade. It was more to do with the fact that she had nowhere else to go, and for once, Rip was talking sense.

“We’ll do it right this time,” said Rip, earnestly waving an expansive hand. “Transparency. No secret agendas. We’ll be accountable. I’m negotiating a treaty with the UN.”

“You, Rip Hunter, are going to be accountable to the UN?” she asked.

“Yes, actually,” said Rip, shoving his hands in his pockets, glancing down at his shoes and then back at Eve. “We need someone to undo the damage done by the time storm, and I can’t do it alone, but I won’t let the Time Bureau become the Time Masters. I won’t let it be turned into something evil. We swore an oath, to protect the timeline.”

“We swore an oath to the Time Masters, which one of us broke,” said Eve.

“The oath may have been to the Time Masters but the spirit was that we protect time. What was it you said… “there is no higher calling”?”

Eve laughed, tossing her hair. “And you pointed out, rather sentimentally, that love was more important even than that. What on earth would make you think that I would come and work for something that was created by a person who would put emotion above their duty?”

“I haven’t changed my views,” said Rip. “I was hoping that you’d at least want to help me continue to protect the timeline.” He sighed. “Look, I know you have the Acheron and Gilbert and you can go wherever you want to, but if you’re like me, you can’t just retire. We were raised to be Time Masters, and you know what it was like. It was our life. We were never encouraged to think for ourselves or to be anything other than what we were trained to be. We were expected to go from one mission to the next, no down time, no connections, nothing that might distract us from our work. We’re both wholly unequipped for any kind of life outside of the Time Masters. Believe me, even given my previous rogue status, I’m… finding it… difficult.”

He paused again, shifting nervously.

“And honestly, I could do with a friend to stand beside me.”

Eve rolled her eyes. “The great Rip Hunter is admitting to needing someone besides himself?”

“I’ve rather become accustomed to at least having a few people around to shout orders at… which are then inevitably ignored, but the principle is at least there,” he gave a slight shrug. “I fully expect you to follow their example.”

She gave him a knowing smile. “At least, if I do join you, you’d have someone who doesn’t let her heart rule her head to keep you from making stupid mistakes.”

He gave her a slightly amused look of his own. “There is that.”

“This Time Bureau of yours is never going to work. Your Legends succeeded in thoroughly breaking history and it’s going to be several lifetime’s work to fix it. Even the Time Masters would have struggled,” said Eve.

“Eobard Thawne had the Spear of Destiny. There were limited options,” said Rip. “Time can be fixed, and I intend to deal with my own mistakes.”

“One of which was recruiting that rag tag bunch of misfits in the first place,” said Eve.

“They are my friends, Captain Baxter,” he said, with something of a tired sigh, as if he was fed up of justifying this. “They saved me from a fate that was quite probably worse than death. I owe them a great deal.”

“And yet they’re not here,” said Eve.

“They’re currently at the centre of the worst anachronism storm in history. The Waverider became the epicentre, so to speak. I can’t even get to them at the moment, the disturbances are too great in the area,” said Rip.

“So the Waverider that is parked alongside is…?”

“A future version that apparently I left for myself because I knew that I’d need Gideon’s help to start and run the Time Bureau,” said Rip.

“Ah,” said Eve. “You created a time loop.”

“My future self did, yes,” said Rip. “Which means that obviously I did succeed sufficiently to be able to at least rescue the Legends.”

Eve raised an eyebrow. “Still breaking the rules. You can’t resist, can you?”

“Technically, I haven’t yet, and there are no Time Masters left to enforce those rules,” replied Rip. “I happen to think that some of them were rather unnecessary.”

“You realise that I’m not going to agree with you about anything,” said Eve.

“I am somewhat counting on it. Are you in or not?” he asked, a serious look in his eyes.

Eve looked up. “Gilbert, you’re alarmingly quiet. I assume you have an opinion.”

“I live to serve, Captain, but it is quite lonely out here. More human interactions would be beneficial to your health and the timeline will always need protecting.”

Eve sighed, apparently her AI thought she should take the job.

“I guess I’m joining the Time Bureau,” said Eve.

Rip smiled. That was a rare enough event that she almost missed the hand he offered to her to shake on it. But she did take it and they did shake.

-

Rip strapped on his weapons, looking somewhat nervously at Eve and Ava. The three were stood in Rip’s office getting some last minute micromanaging from their boss, which both of them regarded as entirely without need.

“You’re sure that you two can manage in my absence?” he asked.

“Of course, Hunter,” said Eve. This was only the third or fourth time he’d checked. “Everyone is briefed, and the Bureau is capable of running perfectly well without your constant supervision.”

“We’ll be fine, sir,” said Ava, with rather less sarcasm than Eve had managed.

“Really? Because you know we could postpone dealing with these Time Pirates for a bit longer,” said Rip.

“Anyone would think it was your first time in the field,” said Eve, with barely contained annoyance.

“It’s just that with Director Bennett away in Washington…” Rip began, tailing off as he saw the dark look on Eve’s face. He could not be suggesting that she couldn’t handle the Bureau on her own, could he? He had better not be.

“Everything is under control, sir,” said Ava, again, in a placating tone that verged on the insubordinate. Eve approved entirely.

Rip held his hands up in surrender. “Very well, I leave it in your capable hands.”

The Bureau had rules about ensuring that Agents didn’t simply skip backwards to the moment that they left. Eventually the time added up and Bureau agents couldn’t be seen to be aging differently from those around them. It also helped everyone keep their own personal timelines straight.

Rip gave them a final nod and went to meet up with his team. Operations informed Eve that Director Hunter had left the building without incident. Ava leaned in and gave her partner’s hand a squeeze.

“I know what you told him, but this is your first time in sole charge…” said Ava.

Eve gave her girlfriend a cross look, removing her hand from Ava’s. “You too? Please, I was a Time Master for years. No one questions whether Hunter can do it.”

“He’s had longer to get settled in and be used to managing all these people,” said Ava.

“I will be completely fine,” said Eve, walking purposefully towards her office. She turned her back on Ava.

“I’m not doubting you,” said Ava, “I’m just saying that it wouldn’t be unusual to feel a little overwhelmed and perhaps require some help from a friend.”

“I don’t need help,” said Eve, still annoyed.

Ava stepped up her pace, so that she was level with Eve, and then turned and stepped in front of her. They were level with the Quiet Room on the first floor of the Bureau.

“Eve, what’s up with you? You’ve been weird ever since I tried to kiss you at breakfast,” said Ava, her voice a hissed whisper.

Eve was not going to have this discussion in the middle of the office. That would be unprofessional in the extreme. She grabbed her girlfriend by the arm and bundled her into the Quiet Room beside them, sliding the slider to occupied as she did so. Ava allowed herself to be dragged with a rather perplexed look on her face.

“I think we should break up,” said Eve.

“What?” said Ava, with apparent shock. “Why? You know how I feel about you, and the sex is amazing. I thought things had been going really well.”

Eve shook her head. “It’s not that I don’t like you. I think that perhaps you’ve misunderstood the nature of our relationship. I think we’ve taken this as far as I want to go.”

Ava looked… hurt. She straightened her back, pulling herself up to her full height. “I see. And what about how far I want to go?”

“I did not intend for my relationship with you to become this… serious, and…” she searched for the word, waving a hand. “Complicated.”

Ava looked rather puzzled now. “Then what have we been doing all this time? I thought it was just casual to begin with, I admit, but we passed that point some time ago, Eve.”

“I’m sorry if I’ve given you the wrong impression. Romance has never been terribly important in my life, and I’m not good at expressing how I feel…” began Eve, but couldn’t continue.

“No shit,” replied Ava. “Neither of us are, but I have been trying my hardest to make this work because I thought you felt the same way about me as I do about you.”

Eve’s eyes widened at that. She wasn’t exactly sure how she felt about Ava, which was why she needed to finish this now, because it was all getting too messy and difficult. She couldn’t let Ava in like this. She didn’t really understand what she was feeling, but she knew she cared about Ava a great deal and she didn’t like the implication. She couldn’t possibly be in love, because Eve Baxter did not fall in love.

Then there was the unmistakeable sound of gunfire from outside the door, and suddenly her relationship with Ava was the last thing on her mind. The two women exchanged a look, the meaning of which was very clear. Personal discussions would have to wait, but Ava hadn’t dropped the matter.

Ava reached into her pocket and shoved her com in her ear. “Status report!” she snapped.

Eve did the same, catching the middle of the reply. “…Director Hunter. Time Pirates have entered the building. We have several agents down and they had an EMP. Gideon isn’t answering.”

Eve sighed. What had Hunter got them into now? If he found out that they’d disabled Gideon, then she doubted the pirates would like what happened to them. Hunter and his AI had a bond that went far beyond anything she had with Gilbert.

“They appear to be taking hostages,” said the agent. “I’m putting Operations on lock down.”

“Good work, Agent Pan,” said Eve. “We’ll follow protocol for siege situations.”

“Yes, ma’am,” replied the Agent.

Suddenly the com screeched at her and she had to remove it from her ear to avoid being deafened.

“They’re jamming them,” she said with annoyance. Ava had also pulled her own com from her ear.

“That isn’t a good sign,” said Ava. “They’re unusually organised for an opportunistic attack.”

“My thoughts too,” said Eve. “Where’s Hunter?”

“Agent Pan said that the pirates have him, but he was alive when they came back through the portal,” said Ava.

“At least that’s something. That man can’t step foot outside without something bad happening to him,” said Eve.

Ava went to the door and carefully cracked it open. There were armed men in the Bureau rounding up everyone in sight and moving them down to the Atrium.

“Shit,” said Ava.

“Eloquent as always,” said Eve, dryly. If they left the room then they’d be caught and corralled with the other Time Bureau agents. “If you have any more helpful suggestions then I’m all ears.”

“Do you want to play Die Hard?” asked Ava, indicating the ceiling and the entrance into the air conditioning ducts.

“I’d rather not die at all,” said Eve.

“It’s the name of a film,” replied Ava, with exasperation. “You’ve never seen Die Hard?”

Eve shook her head. “No. We have covered before that the Time Masters weren’t big on popular culture from this era. Rip has the same trouble. What happens in this film?”

“A man finds himself in the middle of a hostage situation in a skyscraper. He takes down the entire group, and saves all the hostages,” said Ava.

“So, how did _he_ do it?” asked Eve.

“One at a time, and by using the air shafts to get around,” said Ava. She pulled a chair over, so that it was underneath the entrance to the air duct. Eve kept an eye on the pirates outside the door. There was a lot of shouting, but no one was looking in their direction, so they were safe for the moment. She closed the door, quietly.

“We’re going to need more weapons,” said Eve, checking the gun that she kept in her shoulder holster. It had a full clip in it, plus the one she kept on her belt. It wouldn’t be enough to deal with all the pirates, but it was a start.

“The armoury will be to our right,” replied Ava. She’d removed the air vent cover and had pulled out a torch from her pocket. She was shining it into the duct, apparently checking it out. “Help me up. We should be able to get around the entire floor.”

Eve holstered her gun and went over to her girlfriend, and then corrected herself, she wasn’t her girlfriend anymore. She’d been about to break up with her. She gave Ava a boost into the air shaft, trying very hard not to admire the view of her shapely behind. She didn’t get to do that anymore. She needed to stop thinking of Ava as her girlfriend.

Ava looked down at Eve from the air shaft. “Come on,” she said, holding out a hand.

Eve wished that she’d decided to wear pants today, but to be honest that was low down her list of concerns right now. She got on the chair, took the hand, jumped up and allowed Ava to help pull her into the shaft.

“Come on,” said Ava. “We’ve got a lot of pirates to deal with.”

They crawled along the air shafts for a few minutes in silence, towards the armoury. Half way along was a vent and Eve and Ava could see the Atrium below.

A female pirate was strutting around with a gun in her hands. The Bureau agents were sat on the floor with Rip in the centre, being held upright by a much larger, burly pirate. The female pirate waltzed up to Rip and punched him on the jaw. Eve winced on his behalf.

“You’re not going to win, Malone,” said Rip, spitting out blood. It looked like this wasn’t the first time he’d been hit, judging by the bruises.

“Screw you, Hunter,” said the woman. She had light blonde hair, plaited and tied with black ribbons, and bright blue eyes that held unbelievable hatred. She took her gun and put it to his head.

“Better men and women that you have tried to intimidate me,” said Rip, meeting the eyes of the woman in front of him defiantly. “If you shoot me, you definitely won’t get what you want. You need at least two Directors, and I’m the only one in the building at the moment.”

The woman, Malone, let out a low growl and the gun was removed. Eve started to breathe again.

“Then we’ll wait right here,” said the pirate, kicking Rip’s legs out from under him. He landed painfully on the floor on his knees.

“That man is a magnet for trouble,” whispered Ava, with annoyance. Eve knew that despite what Ava said, she was concerned about Rip. The Time Bureau took protecting their Director quite seriously.

“Why would they do this?” asked Eve, quietly. The mention of requiring two Directors did make her wonder about something, though.

“Obviously they want something,” said Ava, “it would be nice to know what.”

Eve frowned, and it suddenly came to her. “They want the Sunjammer.”

“Oh crap,” murmured Ava. “The most sophisticated timeship ever built, and they want us to just hand it over. Typical pirates. The Director will die before he turns it over.”

“Yes, so we’d better stop that from happening,” replied Eve. “Come on.”

She shuffled away down the tunnel and found the vent that led into the armoury. Ava was following now. The two of them dropped down into the room beneath then and collected the weaponry they would need. Eve thought that the large amount of explosives that Ava attached to her belt might be overkill, but then she herself was considering which grenades would best fit in her pockets so really she wasn’t one to talk.

Pirates were in their house, and no one was going to hurt the Time Bureau on her watch.

-

Eve was assigned Agent Ava Sharpe as head of her “go team”. It had seemed an obvious pairing to Rip. The two had a very similar outlook when it came to their approach to their work. They spent some months efficiently fixing anachronisms without any real problems. Rip had been pleased with them, citing them as his most efficient team on a number of occasions.

Everything had gone well until two of the members of Eve’s team had come to her with a small issue.

“We’d like to date,” said Agent Khan, his brown eyes looking just a little concerned.

“You want to _date_?” asked Eve, testing the word out.

Agent Olivas nodded. “Yes, Deputy Director. So, as per regulations, one of us has to be reassigned.” He too also looked somewhat concerned.

Eve had just looked at the two agents standing in front of her for a moment that seemed to stretch out far longer than it should have.

“I can’t stop you,” she said. “Do you have a preference as to who leaves?”

Khan and Olivas exchanged looks. “No, Deputy Director.”

“Fine, I’ll transfer you both to new teams. It’s only fair,” said Eve.

Of course, in Rip’s Time Bureau there were no regulations against dating or having any kind of relationship, including marriage. The only rules were that if you were in a relationship of any kind you could not be in direct command of your significant other, or work in the same Go Team. It was easy enough to transfer people to other teams, and Rip believed in giving people a range of experiences anyway, so really it wasn’t such a big deal.

Eve hadn’t agreed at all though. She had no problem with people having relationships, just not ones within the Bureau. She wanted people to be focused, and she had been suspicious of whether either agent would now be properly paying attention to their job. Rip had called her in to his office later.

“Is there a reason why you want to reassign two of your agents?” he asked.

“Romantic entanglement,” said Eve. “It’s in the transfer request. I’d rather reassign them both than have to deal with a lovesick agent screwing up a mission.”

Rip raised an eyebrow. “I’m somewhat concerned that you don’t think your agents are capable of the required professionalism to keep their private and work lives separate.”

“I’m not convinced that they are,” said Eve, crossing her arms.

Rip gave her quite a disappointed look that she didn’t appreciate greatly.

“I know that you’re new to the idea of workplace romance, but it really is perfectly normal,” said Rip.

Eve shrugged. “Even if it is, it still gets in the way. I had a team that was working very well together and now I’m going to have to replace two agents.”

“One agent,” said Rip. “You can move one agent.”

“Are you telling me how to run my own team now?” asked Eve.

Rip shook his head. “I would never presume to tell you how to do anything, Deputy Director Baxter, but I am refusing to grant a personnel transfer.”

Eve rolled her eyes. “You really are infuriating, Hunter. Our duty to the timeline is the only thing that matters.”

“Wrong,” said Rip, and this time his voice was more serious. “We are nothing without our humanity. I’ll happily reassign one of your agents to meet the needs of the regulations. You’ll just have to keep the other one. I won’t punish anyone for wanting a relationship with a fellow agent, as long as they declare it and follow the rules. Please, at least try to understand that we are not the Time Masters and that I wish to do things differently.”

“I am well aware of what we are not,” bit out Eve.

“Eve…” he began, getting up from behind his desk, and moving around to perch on the edge. “Just give it a chance. If either agent is really incapable of dealing with their love life in private, then we can discuss it again.”

She let out a long breath. “Fine, but don’t come running to me when it all comes crashing down around you.”

She strode out of the office, quietly seething. There was a bottle of red wine in her future. Gilbert would not approve, but she didn’t really care.

Much to her puzzlement Agent Khan, who she had decided was the more stable of the two, did not turn into a lovesick moron just because he was seeing someone. And six weeks later she found herself asking Rip to transfer Ava to a new team, because during rather a heated mission involving a giant, rampaging, robotic squid she’d kissed her direct deputy. Or been kissed by, she wasn’t actually sure who had initiated it.

That led to three rather interesting realisations. Firstly, that she liked girls and not boys (well, she’d probably known that for a while, but it had all been rather academic when she’d never intended to act on it), secondly that, out of all the girls she’d met, she liked Ava Sharpe specifically, and finally that apparently workplace romance was now something she was actively glad she could indulge in. She swallowed her pride, and put in the transfer request.

“You want me to transfer Agent Sharpe?” asked Rip. “She’s your second, and you work well together. Have you two had a falling out?”

Eve just raised an eyebrow. “More the opposite.”

“Oh,” said Rip, probably realising what this meant for his chances of getting away with any of his usual crap. “Oh god. You and Agent Sharpe are…”

“Having hot sex? Yes,” said Eve, with the slightest smirk.

Rip actually blushed a little, which made Eve’s smirk broaden into a grin. “Erm, congratulations, or maybe, well done… I think. Transfer request granted, of course.” He signed the form and handed it back to her, turning back to his paperwork. “I see that you did come around to the idea of relationships within the Bureau,” he added, without looking up.

“Do not say another word, Hunter, or I’ll let Gilbert talk to Gideon about cats,” said Eve.

She had recently acquired a cat. Or rather Gilbert had arranged for its procurement and so now she had an annoying feline to care for. Gilbert had seemed to think she needed the companionship for some reason.

Rip held up his hands in horror. “Please, no. I do not need another creature in my life that requires looking after. A Bureau full of time agents is quite enough responsibility.”

She grinned and left him to his work.

She didn’t begrudge him the small amount of teasing she got when Agents Khan and Olivas announced their engagement a few months later, and she also didn’t comment on the dampness in his eyes when he received an invitation to the first Time Bureau wedding.

-

They took out the easy ones first, the ones who were patrolling around edges. They got through six inept pirates before their method hit a snag.

Eve dropped down in front of the seventh, a stocky pirate who had a face that only a mother could love, and she was thinking perhaps even his mother might have struggled.

“Hi handsome,” she said, with an ironic smirk.

The pirate managed to get out the beginning of a question before Ava dropped down behind him and hit him over the head with the butt of her rifle. Ava looked rather satisfied.

“Really? “Hi handsome”? That was the best you could come up with,” said Ava.

“It worked. What would you have said?” asked Eve.

Unfortunately, Eve didn’t get to find out that bit of information. There was the sound of a gun being cocked behind her. Eve reluctantly raised her hands, as her rifle was removed from her fingers. She was now taking rapid mental inventory of where her other weapons were on her body, and whether she could reach them rapidly enough to deal with the pirate.

“That’s enough of that, my lovelies,” said the woman that Rip had referred to as “Malone”. “If you want your friend here to still have the right number of holes in her head, I’d suggest you drop your gun too, blondie.”

Ava looked angry, about as angry as Eve had ever seen her. She met Eve’s eyes, but dropped the gun to the floor. A second pirate appeared behind Ava.

“Deputy Director Baxter, isn’t it?” asked the pirate.

“What’s it to you?” asked Eve, with venom.

“Well, you’d be one of the other people that has the codes to access the Sun Jammer. Director Hunter said we needed two of you and now we have you,” replied the pirate.

“Neither of us are going to give you the codes,” said Eve. “We’d die before we let you get your hands on that ship.”

“We’ll see about that, my lovely,” said Malone.

“If you touch her…” began Ava.

The pirate behind her jammed the gun he held on her into Ava’s back, reminding her of his presence. Eve could see that Ava was barely in control of her rage.

“You’ll do nothing,” said Malone, “because then you’ll both be dead.”

For a second Eve’s eyes met Ava’s again, and that was all they needed.

“Don’t kill them,” said Eve.

“That’s not up to you, my lovely,” said Malone.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” said Eve.

Ava gave her the smallest smile possible, and then slammed an elbow into the pirate behind her. That happened at the exact moment that Eve lowered her arm, and the knife that was up her sleeve dropped into her hand. She moved down and to the side, slashing out with one fluid movement. She heard the gun go off, but she’d already moved out of the path of the bullet. She turned and grabbed the muzzle twisting the firearm out of the hands of the pirate. She caught a glimpse of Ava dealing efficiently with her pirate, sweeping a kick out at his legs. He went down hard.

Malone was proving to be more difficult though. She had some actual skill when it came to hand to hand combat. A punch caught Eve in the ribs and the sound of a snap took her breath away. That was the noise a broken rib made, and she swore through the pain. A second fist slammed into her jaw, causing her to let out a pained groan. She got her own back by catching Malone on the shoulder with the tip of her knife, but the woman was quick. She grabbed Eve’s hand, twisting it so that she couldn’t keep her grip on her weapon. Eve kicked out, hitting Malone hard in the midriff, but her chest was painful, and she was having trouble putting sufficient power behind her attacks now. Malone still stumbled back a step, ready to come at Eve again.

Then suddenly Malone was crumbling to the floor, and stood there with the remains of a smashed glass bowl was Gary Green, looking a bit surprised.

“Er, sorry,” said Gary. “Is she dead?”

Ava’s sparring partner was also down on the ground, and Ava was smashing him in the face one last time to ensure that he was out. Eve reached down to check on the pirate, and found a pulse.

“No, you just stunned her,” said Eve, picking up her gun again. “Where did you come from?”

“The stationery cupboard,” said Gary, distinctly embarrassed.

Ava gave him an unimpressed look. “You were hiding in the stationery cupboard?”

“I heard the gunfire and thought I’d be better off waiting,” said Gary.

Eve exchanged a look with Ava. She couldn’t really fault the man, after all, they’d done roughly the same thing.

“Nice work, Agent Green,” said Eve. She looked Ava up and down, noticing blood on her face, and closed the distance between her and her soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend. “Are you okay? That looks nasty.”

“Head wounds bleed a lot,” said Ava.

Eve couldn’t help herself, she reached up and brushed the stray blonde hairs away from Ava’s face, examining the cut. It was across Ava’s right cheek, and it looked like it had been made by a ring on the pirate’s hand. Eve felt deep concern, more than she should be feeling over such a slight wound.

“I’m fine,” said Ava, apparently picking up on Eve’s worry.

Eve took a deep breath, trying not to let it show how much that hurt. “Yes, it’s just a cut. Callahan will be able to fix it.” She turned back to Gary. “Let’s get these pirates secured and then we can rescue our people in the Atrium.”

Ava reached out a hand, and was giving her a worried look of her own. “Are you okay?”

“The bitch broke a rib I think,” said Eve, holding her painful side. “We don’t have time to nurse our wounds now though.”

“Uh, Deputy Director Baxter, Agent Sharpe,” said Gary, he’d been checking over Malone for weapons. The two women turned to look at Gary, who was holding a box with flashing lights on it and a series of numbers that appeared to be counting down. “What’s this?”

Ava’s eyes widened. “That is a detonator.”

Eve looked back at the device with alarm. “Where’s the bomb to go with it then?”

“I would guess that it’s somewhere in the Time Bureau,” said Ava, taking the detonator from Gary. “It must have been some kind of dead man’s switch, or she had to reset it every so often.”

“How long have we got?” asked Eve.

“Twenty minutes,” said Ava.

“Great, and I thought this day couldn’t get any worse,” said Eve. “Come on. We’ve got some pirates to deal with, and hopefully one of them will know where the bomb is.”

Ava gave her a nod. They finished tying up the other pirate and pulled them both into the stationery cupboard where Gary had been hiding. The stationery cupboard wasn’t the ideal location to keep their prisoners, but it would do for now. Ava was rather unsubtle about ensuring that Eve didn’t have to do any of the bending or lifting, and Eve was actually fully prepared to save her strength for the fight to come.

The next problem was getting to the Atrium without being seen, but now that they’d dealt with most of the patrolling pirates it was a bit easier. They kept to the cover of desks and furniture, and made it to the corridor just outside the Atrium.

Ava looked around the corner at the group agents currently being held at gunpoint, and swore under her breath.

“What’s the matter?” asked Eve, who was sat beside her and now trying to see what she’d spotted.

“I should have known,” said Ava. “It’s not enough that he gets himself captured, he has to get a bomb strapped to him as well.”

Eve craned her neck around the corner, trying not to pull on her injured side and finally saw what Ava had.

“Shit,” she whispered. The bomb was clearly visible. It had been attached to a vest, and the vest was currently being worn rather miserably by Rip Hunter.

-

“She wants a drawer,” said Eve, striding into Rip’s office and shutting the door behind her.

“Sorry, who wants a drawer and why am I being involved in this? Logistics deal with all that sort of thing,” replied Rip, with bafflement.

“Ava wants a drawer, in my bedroom, in my apartment,” said Eve.

Rip just frowned at her and indicated with his hands his puzzlement as to why he should care about this.

“Is that normal? It’s my apartment. I feel like it’s something significant. I just take a bag with me when we sleep at hers,” she was talking more quickly than usual. “I’m not sure I have enough space to give her a drawer, and where am I going to keep my bras?”

“Enough!” said Rip, rapidly. “I don’t need to know the details of your private life or what drawer you keep your… bras in.”

“But what would you do?” asked Eve.

“I don’t know. I’ve never shared an apartment with anyone except Gideon, who doesn’t have… bras. Miranda and I had a house in London, but most of my things were on the Waverider, and besides, we moved in at the same time. We never had a period of staying over at one another’s places, and she could never have left anything on the Waverider in case someone found it.” Rip shrugged.

“But it is normal to keep some things at your girlfriend’s apartment?”

Rip shrugged. “I suppose so. I don’t see any harm in it. Surely it’s just a practical measure to make things easier?”

Eve nodded slowly. “Yes, I suppose it could be seen as purely practical. Right, yes, Ava just wants to be efficient. That does make sense.”

Rip gave her a look. “I think it actually might be a bit more significant than that. Things between the two of you seem to be going quite well.”

“They are,” said Eve. “At least I think they are. I’m not exactly experienced in… love. How do you even _know_ when you’re in love?”

“Why are you asking me for advice?” asked Rip. “I’ve fallen in love precisely once and it wasn’t like I chose for it to happen or had some great moment of revelation about the human condition.”

Eve frowned. “That is still more experience than I have. Wait, you didn’t choose it?”

“No, I knew it was against the rules, we both did. It just happened. We found each other, and we knew that the other was special. I doubt either of us even understood that it actually was love until Miranda was resigning, and I was wishing I’d got there first. I knew then that I would have given up anything for her. That was a terrifying realisation to begin with,” said Rip, and he paused, getting that sad, faraway look he often got when people mentioned children or asked if had a partner. “How did we even end up discussing this? I’m sure this is against some kind of policy that we have.”

“I asked you about drawers,” said Eve.

“Give her the damn drawer. What harm can it do?” said Rip.

“None I suppose. I mean we’re always leaving things in the other’s apartment anyway…” she paused. “Can I ask you something else?”

Rip sat back in his chair, dropping his pen on his desk. “I doubt I’ll be getting anymore work done until you’ve got this off your chest.”

Eve gave him an annoyed look.

“Fine, ask away,” said Rip.

“Is there supposed to be a specific point in a relationship that you tell someone you love them? Is it like a six-month thing? Or maybe after you’ve slept together a certain number of times…?”

“What? No! Of course not. You don’t say the words unless you really mean them…” said Rip, and then his brain seemed to catch up. “Are you in love with Ava?”

Eve’s forehead furrowed, with distaste. “No!” She didn’t fall in love. She’d been taught better than that. Then she winced, as she realised that she’d just lied, because she definitely felt something for Ava. She didn’t really appreciate the Time Masters’ lack of emotional education. Some instruction on how to deal with these feelings would have been very welcome. “…maybe… possibly… I actually don’t know.”

Rip laughed. “You are!”

Eve just fixed him with an annoyed look. “If you say anything…”

Rip shook his head, but he was still smiling. “Of course not. Er, good for you.” His face took on a more serious appearance. “In affairs of the heart, it is best to listen to that organ and not your head. Say it when it feels right, and you know you mean it, and not a moment before. If she’s the right one, well, maybe you’ll be lucky and she’ll say it back. Or perhaps she’ll get there first, and then you’ll have a split second to decide whether you want to return it…” His internal gaze left the room and she knew he was remembering his wife again. He sighed and looked up at her. “You’ll work it out, I’m sure.”

Eve really hoped he was right, because right now, she had very little idea how to approach things. It had been said that the course of true love didn’t run smoothly, but she hadn’t realised that caring about someone would be quite so messy. She supposed she might have to actually talk to Ava about it.

-

“What do we do?” asked Gary. “We can’t let them blow up the Director.”

“Of course we can’t,” said Eve.

“And we won’t,” said Ava. “But we’ve only got ten minutes until that thing goes off.”

They could hear one of the pirates on the radio, shouting for Malone and wondering where she’d got to. They were asking why the countdown on the bomb had started. Someone had gagged Rip with duct tape. He looked very annoyed, and perhaps just a touch scared, but he was doing his best to pretend he wasn’t.

Eve did her best to ignore the pain in her ribs when she tried to get up, but she couldn’t stop herself from letting out a totally involuntary gasp. The single broken bone was causing far more distress than she really felt it should.

“Eve?” asked Ava, suddenly solicitous. “Are you okay? It’s the broken rib, isn’t it?”

“Of course, it’s the damn broken rib. It hurts like hell, but it’ll have to wait,” said Eve, guarding her side. She waved off Ava’s concern.

“We need a plan,” said Ava, although she was still casting concerned looks in Eve’s direction.

“Can I suggest we shoot the pirates?” said Eve.

“More of a plan than that,” said Ava.

“Okay, you take the ones on the left, and I’ll take the ones on the right,” said Eve.

“That’s better,” replied Ava.

“What about me?” asked Gary.

“Evacuate everyone you can, then get to the bomb and see if you can get it off Rip,” said Eve, as if that was obvious.

“And if I can’t?” asked Gary, who looked like he was about to have panic attack at any moment.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” said Ava, as she loaded a fresh clip. “We’re on the clock. Ready?”

Eve checked her own gun. “Okay, let’s do this.”

“You’ve been hanging around with Rip too long,” said Ava.

Eve raised a single eyebrow. “On three.” She mouthed the count, and then the two women stepped out from their hiding place and began shooting.

The remaining pirates were taken completely by surprise, and didn’t seem to know what had hit them. Ava calmly shot the one who was aiming a gun at Rip, and then took down two more with well placed bullets to their centre mass. Eve was less adept with a firearm, but she was still quite proficient enough to move between cover and hit the targets she aimed at.

Gary pulled the evacuation alarm, which Eve noted as a good idea, and began freeing any agents that he could get to during the confusion. The time pirates were shooting back, but there were a lot less of them now. Once a few agents were free, they could begin freeing the others, and the combat trained agents helped Eve and Ava mop up the remaining hostile forces.

“Everyone out!” shouted Eve, as a couple of her team hesitated. “This isn’t a drill. That’s a real bomb.” Even the effort of shouting pulled on her aching side.

Ava took down the final pirate, and ran over to Rip, who was kneeling on the ground. He and Gary were struggling to free the Time Bureau Director, but getting nowhere. The vest had been locked on with padlocks and they’d have to cut the entire thing off. There just wasn’t time. Eve joined Ava seconds later, after a quick check of the pirates to make sure none of them would be getting up again.

“Mmh mmmh mmh!” said Rip, urgently.

Ava ripped off the tape from his mouth.

“You need to get out of here now!” he said, deadly serious.

“Shut up, Hunter,” said Eve. “Gary, go. You don’t need to be here. Make sure everyone got out safely.”

“But, Director Hunter…” began Gary.

“Go, that’s an order,” said Eve, sternly, and very reluctantly, Gary left.

Eve turned to Ava. “Can you defuse it?”

The counter gave them four minutes, and the look in Ava’s eyes said it all. She was worried. She wasn’t certain it could be done.

“I don’t know,” she said, looking up and meeting Rip’s eyes.

“Go, no one else needs to die,” said Rip, his face dark with knowledge of his probable fate.

“No,” said Ava. “I have to try, but Eve, you should leave.”

“I’m not leaving,” said Eve. She put both her hands on Ava’s face, pulling it around to look at her. “I love you and we’re not breaking up and we’re not dying today.”

Eve leaned in and kissed Ava on the lips, ignoring Rip, and the groan that emitted from him.

“Now?” said Rip, with disbelief, “you’re doing this now?”

“Love you too, babe,” replied Ava.

She turned back to the bomb, pulled out a pen knife from her pocket and carefully cut two wires. The clock sped up.

“Shit,” Ava swore.

She much less carefully slid her knife under a bundle of wires and sliced through all of them together. The countdown stopped, and everyone present breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh, thank god,” said Rip. “Now, perhaps you could get this thing off me.”

Ava made good use of her pen knife and sliced through he ties that held Rip’s wrists, followed by tackling the clasps on the vest. Once Rip was free, Ava leaned over to her girlfriend and gave her a proper kiss. Eve enjoyed it very much, and felt it was made even better by Rip’s exasperated protest that this wasn’t the time or place.

After that they got the agents back into the building, and began the clean-up process. Time pirates were carted off to the cells and Dr Callahan was called by Ava, despite the fact that Eve and Rip both denied needing a doctor.

Dr TC Callhan sat his two patients down on the sofa in the Atrium, whilst he gave them a preliminary examination to determine if they needed to go to the Infirmary. One of the other Bureau medics has seen to the cut on Ava’s face, but it hadn’t needed any real treatment apart from a clean and a dressing. Eve was pleased to see it was no where near as bad as she’d first thought, however, Callahan was clearly angling to get her and Rip to the Infirmary for proper treatment.

“I can’t go to the Infirmary now,” said Eve, “I’m still in charge of the Bureau. Rip’s obviously got a concussion…”

“I have not,” said Rip, tersely, but TC was checking his pupil reactions anyway. “And my headache would be much better if you’d stop shining that light in my eyes. I need to check on Gideon.”

“The tech department are dealing with Gideon. She just needs to be rebooted,” said Ava.

“She hates that,” said Rip, with a sigh of resignation.

“We know,” said Eve. “I can work fine with a broken rib.”

“You’re both going to the Infirmary,” said Callahan. “And I won’t hear any arguments. A broken rib can lead to a punctured lung, and,” he turned to look at Rip, “you definitely have at least a mild concussion and possibly a broken cheek bone.”

Rip let out a long sigh. “Brilliant. Gideon is going to be annoyed again. It looks like you’re in charge, Agent Sharpe, until at least one of us has been released from the clutches of Dr Callahan.”

Ava smiled at that. “Yes, sir.”

“I should probably write you both up for disobeying orders, but since you did save my life, I suppose that would be rather churlish,” said Rip.

“Damn right, Hunter,” said Eve.

“Also, perhaps next time you could defuse the bomb first, and _then_ declare your undying love for each other,” said Rip, dryly.

Eve found herself blushing just a little, but Ava was grinning broadly, and she took her girlfriend’s hand and gave it a quick squeeze of affection.

TC laughed, and put away his medical kit. “I’m pretty sure that I don’t want to know the context for that. Come on, Rip, I’ll give you a hand to the Infirmary. I’m guessing Agent Sharpe can accompany Deputy Director Baxter.”

“It would be my pleasure,” said Ava.

TC helped a swaying Rip to his feet and towards the elevators, while Ava gently assisted Eve to stand. They took the exercise slowly, and Ava was close to Eve, their bodies pressed together. They began a slow shuffle also towards the elevators, because her body was quite sore now, and the painkillers that TC had given her hadn’t kicked in yet. Hopefully they would soon.

“You meant it, didn’t you?” asked Ava. “You didn’t just say it because you thought we were going to die?”

“I meant it,” said Eve. “I’ve been stupid. I would blame my upbringing, but that seems cowardly. I just didn’t know how to deal with what I feel about you, and apparently there’s nothing like the imminent threat of fiery death to really focus the mind on what’s important.”

Ava was smiling again. “I know what you mean. And it focused my mind on something too.” Her girlfriend took a deep breath. “Move in with me… Or we could both move into your apartment, I don’t mind… I just think maybe it’s time we stopped living in two places.”

Eve stopped her shuffling for a moment, allowing herself to lean on Ava. She’d been doing that in more ways than one lately. It was good to have someone that she cared about and who cared about her too. Ava was being adorably tentative.

“It’s only logical, I suppose. I mean, it definitely makes sense not to be running two places when we only sleep in one…” began Eve. “Although, I think you should move in with me. I’ve got Cat and Gilbert, and I don’t really want to move them.”

Ava nodded, and they began shuffling towards the elevator again. “Okay, but promise me that if you’re freaking out about relationship stuff, next time you’ll talk to me before you decide to break up with me.”

“I promise,” said Eve.

-

Gideon fixed Eve’s broken rib with a minimum of fuss and she was almost back to normal by the following day. TC kept Rip in the Infirmary over night for observation, but he too was absolutely fine and back to his usual grumpy self by the weekend.

That was useful, because Ava and Eve saw no reason to waste time and they recruited Rip to help move boxes.

“You could have just got a moving van to do this,” said Rip, as he manhandled yet another large box out to the van they’d hired for the purpose. “And just how many kitchen appliances does one couple need? You could ditch half of this stuff and not even notice.”

“Ava likes waffles,” said Eve, as she pushed another box to the back of the van to make room for the one Rip had.

“That is hardly an excuse for the huge array of items in this box,” said Rip, finally pushing the box home. He sat down on the lip of the van’s bumper and took a deep breath. “I’m glad that it’s working out for you, though. You deserved to find someone.”

Eve paused for a moment, and looked over at her current boss.

“I honestly didn’t think I had room in my life for this,” said Eve. “I’m actually glad to be wrong for once. I had no idea that love could be like this.”

“Yes, it is something of a revelation, isn’t it?” said Rip, looking thoughtful.

“How did you work it out? All those years ago?” asked Eve.

“I didn’t really,” said Rip. “It was a long time before I realised that what I was feeling was love. It was so fast and bright and exciting… and it grew into something different, better really, that was slower and deeper and warm.” His eyes looking into the distance and Eve gave him a moment, knowing that he’d be back from the memory when he was ready. He took a deep breath. “You’ve got all that to look forwards to.” He smiled at Eve.

“How do you do it?” she asked. “How can you love someone that deeply and then still keep going after their loss?”

“Well, as you know, I didn’t cope fantastically to begin with. I channelled my grief into the mission to defeat Savage and when that was done… I had to find a way to move on. It was hard, and I drank a lot, and shouted at the Legends, and threw myself into my work. To be honest, I just kept moving forwards, and every day was another day that I’d managed to get through. Eventually it hurt a little less, until it got to the point that I could say their names and remember them fondly. I’ll never truly be over their loss, but at least I can move on and I’m no longer crippled by it.” He shrugged. “Some injuries are too deep to properly heal, but mine is now a scar and not a gaping wound.”

Eve put a hand on his forearm. “I’m truly sorry for what the Time Masters did to you. I don’t think I’ve ever said that, but I am.”

“Thank you,” said Rip, “but we’re both their victims, really. They indoctrinated us into their ways of thinking and methods of doing things. It’s a miracle that either of us were able to find people to love and be loved by after having it drummed into us just how evil any sort of attachment was.”

Eve laughed softly at that. “You were right, love is the higher calling, and apparently it conquers all. Even two former Time Masters can manage it.”

Rip smiled back at Eve. “Indeed.”

Ava emerged with another box and dumped it in the back of the van. She looked at the two of them, sat on the van’s bumper. “That’s the last one for now. How about we take them to Eve’s and then we can order takeout?”

“An excellent plan, Agent Sharpe,” said Rip. “I’ll drive, shall I?”

Rip headed around to the driver’s door, leaving Ava and Eve to finish shutting the doors.

“You two looked like you were having a serious talk,” said Ava, putting a hand out to stroke down her girlfriend’s arm.

Eve shrugged. “Just commenting on how things have changed. I am so glad that we’re doing this.”

“Me too,” said Ava. “You and me against the world and all of time, babe.”

“Although if you keep calling me that…”

“What?” asked Ava, with a smirk. “Honey, sugar, baby, pumpkin, snookums...”

“Stop!”

“Pooky, sweetie, angel, my love, my dear, my sweetheart…”

“I’ll assign Agent Green to your Go Team,” said Eve, also now smirking.

“That isn’t fair, and it’s a horrible abuse of power,” said Ava. “Why don’t I just make it up to you tonight?”

That made Eve positively grin. “Now that seems entirely fair.”


End file.
